Deception: A Tactician's Card

Leen's Thoughts

"It's been a while, has it? I have loads of stuff I wanted to talk about. But yeah, you're... you're already dead...so... Sniff. Damn, I'm becoming more of a crybaby now if anything."

I kept on talking while facing a canister containing Cory's body.

Before I got here, I searched for her missing limbs on the third floor. I don't care if the stench is awful, or if the limbs are rotten. Not that I know the exact form of her arm and leg anyway. Some limbs scattered about are almost identical to one another. I came to a realization that me searching for the missing parts is nothing but a farce. I went back upstairs, and stared at her face. She looked like she's just sleeping -- her face is at peace.

There's no way I would allow this desecration to continue.

I can't text anybody, since I gave Annie my cell card to contact Michaela to come to our house instead of going to the Bureau. My head stings a bit after overusing my rune cards, but I could still handle it.

"It seems that I'll be late."

I looked at the other canisters. Of course, I'm not that dumb to just bury Cory and ignore the others. They need a proper way of burial. That said, there's a lot of them in here, not to mention those who are on the floor beneath me.

Should I just burn this place? I've got that rune card from that machine earlier. It's something that could be purchased, and I have no worries when comes to versatility. Leen and I wouldn't have been rune card creators if it weren't. Creators need that versatility feature for their created rune cards and tuck it in the card, otherwise it won't work when used to those who purchased it. It's sort of odd, but it's the rule of nature here. A creator has the affinity to all cards, except Originals from the other creators,with the percentage ranging from seventy to eighty percent.

I stared at the extraction machine and noticed that it's still operational.

"If left here, someone would use it once more for their own selfish reasons. I really should just burn this place for good."

Just then a robotic voice could be heard. It's from the machine, and it spewed one card from a slot. I'm a bit far so I wasn't able to hear what it said. It's another rune card though, that's for sure.

I went towards the machine and took the rune cards (yep, there's two) that popped out from the slot. I flipped it to see one of these what rune card is and it surprised me. I then flipped the other one and it doubles the shock I got.

It's Cory's rune cards.

She was a versatile individual who wields two weapons. One of them is the standard [Bow of the Elves], a bow commonly used by elves -- as the name implies -- and its flexibility and the durability is decent enough. The other is the scythe I made for her, the [Mirror Scythe]. It might look like any other scythes out there, though its appearance is near transparent, and it couldn't be used by any other individuals except those who are deemed worthy. That last feature was added accidentally when I kept thinking of a particular hammer used by a mythical being while creating the rune card. I gave it to her, while sweating bullets.

Ah, the nostalgia.

I gently shook my head and went outside.

The facility may have a couple of shovels in their storage room (I don't know why) but come on, I can't bury each one of them one by one with just a shovel. I don't want to disturb their bodies inside the canisters too.

I guess there's only one way to do it.

I used one of my rune cards, [Receptacle]. It's not surprising to use this in this way; I often do this method whenever we volunteered for a tree planting campaign in our neighborhood. I'll need a decent amount of time to bury the facility whole.

I can't burn this place just yet.

Slowly but steadily, the facility was underneath the ground level. The reason why I chose to bury it instead of burning the place is because I want to tell Michaela and Snow about their sister. Of course, I would love to tell the other families as well, but it would make a chaotic scene if I would tell them all. I'll ask Annie to dug up the lists of those who were "buried" by the Bureau.

I can't help those who are butchered on the third floor though. They're already rotten, so their families might won't recognize them. Those in the canisters are in a good condition.

I went back inside, to bid farewell to a sister figure.

"Wait for me, Cory. I'll get your sisters here and give you a proper burial this time", I said to her while touching the glass.

I closed my eyes for a moment to ease the sorrow in my heart, took a couple of steps back and went outside the facility.

"Oh. I don't have a [Teleport] card. I guess I'll just borrow that jet ski. Good thing it's a fine weather, so I don't need to worry about it being sunken in water."

Not to mention that I need to come back here immediately. Those shitheads might return and stole anything valuable, not that I know that it existed in that place, save for the whole fourth floor.

Why is there a jet ski at the shoreline? Who knows. At least I got a decent transportation vehicle. This could be Annie's tough. It's black in color, her fave.

Mmm?

Come to think of it, I didn't know what's within the last two upper floors.

I'll just investigate those floors after this.

•••

"Is Broki here?"

"No. Not yet I'm afraid. But I'm sure that he'll come back here safe and sound."

The chairperson assured me that he'll be fine.

Of course he'll be fine, he's my Broki. He's the sole person who protected me after all these years we've been living together without a parent's touch. He got a handicap that made him stop going to school -- that is me. He spent years to have our lives comfortable as what we wanted.

But then again, I've always been worried about his well-being. He might act sturdy but I know that deep in his heart, he wanted someone to cheer him up.

It's my intuition.

Of course, my sisterly love is the best and that helped my brother smile. However, I know it's not enough. It's the same for me; my Broki's brotherly love isn't enough to fill the gap of my heart, ever since Cory lost her life.

We wanted the way we smiled before. I'd wish that that's only a bad dream but I know that it's the reality -- Cory won't come back. Ever.

It's not that we're that isolated from the world to such an extent that we'll always say, "All we have are each other and nothing more".

Uh...

Okay, scratch that -- I have my friends, but my brother doesn't and I didn't saw him or hear news about him making friends. I could tell that I'm already halfway through a recovery session, whereas my brother was still grieving. I did try to tell him that he needs to take one step at a time and recover his self.

However, whenever I told him to do so, he always responded in this word.

"How?"

He's not being sarcastic. That much I knew. I knew how my brother acts. The way he expressed it is sincere. He never sprinkles it with a light tone. It's always been a heavy one.

He blames himself for Cory's demise.

And yeah, he did talk about something like he's getting along with the chairperson. So this is why.

"It's not getting along Broki. What you've been doing is repenting."

"Hmm? Did you say something Leen?"

I gasped.

Did I blurted that out? Clumsy me!

"A-ah, nothing! Nothing at all! I'm just wondering when will he come back."

"Ah. About that...let's await his safe return."

He saved Cory's youngest sister. I think her name is Snow. Miss Chairperson here called her that.

To think that my brother is in that incident. He's often reckless to be honest. So that's why he went and aboard the same train I'm in, huh?

My brother never lies, but he rarely spoke about himself, or what he's doing everyday. He would just spill the beans if I ask, but if I weren't, he won't talk about it.

The silence devoured my room. It was then shattered when we heard a knock on the other side of the door. There could only be one other conscious individual aside from us.

It's Annie Leblanc. Chairperson Michaela told me about her. She's the one who helped my brother in his rescue quest, and also the sister of that stalker of mine. I'm not mad at her though. She's not his brother. What her brother is doing doesn't describe what her personality is.

"Excuse my intrusion. Oh, you're finally awake."

"Yes. Ah! Before I forget... I would like to sincerely thank you for your help."

"Hmm? No. Don't mention it. If anything, it's your brother that made me to what I am now. I should be the one thanking. Now, since you're awake, I assume that the rune card has been extracted by them?"

I shook my head.

"No. They said they didn't do anything."

Miss Annie's frowned a bit but eventually returned back to normal.

"I see. So that means he did it."

"He did what exactly?"

"He defeated my brother."

"Oh? As expected of him."

"Wait."

Snow raised her hand as if she wanted to answer the problem written on the board in a class.

"What is it?"

"Uh, Annie...ma'am? I've read in a book that [Eternal Slumber] only has two methods to deactivated it. He either made him submit or..."

The three of us look at Annie and she just closed her eyes and shook her head.

"Brother..."

For you to break your promise... Something must have happened. I'm pretty sure that it's not just about me. There's another reason why you've done it.

All I could do, as what Miss Michaela said, is to wait for his return.